CULTURE AND CURING IN TENNESSEE. 



187 



These bundles are usually put in one at a time and pulled up close to each other, and when pressed properly 

 come out of the hogsheads straight and firm, but open easily. It is the habit of some planters, particularly 

 of those residing in the Upper Cumberland River district, to press their tobacco very 

 heavily ; and it is said by New York dealers that the heaviest hogsheads received in 

 that market come from this district, some of them weighing as much as 3,000 pounds 

 each, the tobacco being so bruised by the heavy pressure that in many cases it can 

 only be used by snuff-makers. In the Clarksville district from 1,400 to 1,700 pounds 

 are considered about the average Aveights for fine tobacco and lugs, but within 

 recent years the tendency has been to make lighter hogsheads, for nearly all the 

 European markets prefer tobacco that will open freely when it comes from the 

 hogshead. 



False packing, or "nesting", is when inferior or short t6bacco is packed in next 

 to the staves, where inspectors are least likely to observe it. This practice is made 

 an indictable offense by the laws of Tennessee. The practice observed by all honest 

 planters, when there is not enough of any one grade to fill a hogshead, is to put in all of one kind firsf, and then 

 fill up with another, but not to mix the two grades in one layer. 



All rich or moderately rich leaves of uniform color, 26 inches in length and over, are tied neatly and packed in 

 hogsheads made to weigh about 1,400 pounds. This is called a Liverpool African, and is shipped through Liverpool 

 to the African market. When the tobacco is 30 inches long and over, and pressed as above, it is called a Boston 

 African. Both these grades also make what is called a good English shipper. When dark brown and silky, it 

 may be classed as a Swiss wrapper; when of a mottled and light brown color, with good body, it may be classed 

 as a German saucer. 



Short, rich tobacco makes good shippers for Germany and for Great Britain, and such tobacco is usually pressed 

 into casks which are made to weigh about 1,600 pounds. Heavy, bad lugs are more heavily pressed, a hogshead 

 weighing sometimes 1,800 to 2,000 pounds; but if the lugs are of good body, and not much worm-eaten, nor 

 blistered, nor dirty, but are suitable for fillers, the hogsheads should not weigh more than 1,500 or 1,600 pounds net. 

 Light, fancy yellow tobacco is prized more lightly, 800 to 1,000 pounds sometimes being sufficient to put in a 

 hogshead. 



The casks vary greatly in size in the different portions of the state. In western Tennessee they are 56 inches high 

 and 44 inches in diameter; in the Clarksville region, 56 inches high and 42 inches in diameter, sometimes 54 inches 

 high and 40 inches in diameter ; in the Upper Cumberland River district, 60 inches high and 42 inches across the 

 head. Very often, however, they are much larger, some of them being 6 feet high and 50 inches across the head. 



The casks or hogsheads are usually made of red-oak staves, rived and drawn, but sometimes they are sawed and 

 are strongly bound with flat hoops made of young white oak, though small hickory poles, divided in halves, are 

 occasionally employed. Staves sawed from the wood of the tulip tree are used to a considerable extent in the 

 Upper Cumberland district, though rarely in the other parts of the state. When sold with two heads, hogsheads 

 cost from $2 to $2 25 each. Planters sometimes prefer to furnish one head themselves, and in that case the cost 

 of the hogshead is .$1 75. Sticks cost 25 cents per hundred. Tobacco is very rarely packed in boxes, and when 

 these are employed for the purpose they are procured at second-hand from the merchants. 



TOBACCO PRIZES AND THEIR CONSTRUCTION. 



What are known as the beam and lever prizes have three " swords", two movable, but the third dovetailed into 

 the ground sill upon which the hogshead stands. This sill passes through a mortise in an upright post, which is 

 set four feet in the ground. 

 The beam which brings the 

 pressure on the tobacco in the 

 hogshead is also mortised into 

 this post about six feet from 

 the surface of the ground. 

 W T hen the beam (C) is thrown 

 up by the small sword (D) a 

 pen of stout blocks is built 

 upon a loosely fitting head that 

 lies upon the tobacco in the 

 hogshead. The lever (G) being 

 raised, a pin is put through a 

 hole in the iirst movable sword 

 (F) above the beam and the 

 lever is pulled down. This has 



the effect of drawing down the beam (C) on the tobacco, and it is kept down by the insertion of a pin above it in 

 the fixed sword (E). This process is repeated until the beam is brought to a level. If the tobacco in the cask 



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